This column was submitted by Evangeline Cessna, local history librarian at the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library. 

This week, the library is featuring titles from our New Adult Nonfiction collection.

Anne Applebaum explains what the new face of an autocratic state looks like in her book Autocracy, Inc. In the 21st century, autocracies are not constructed by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of thieving financial structure, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists who all operate across multiple regimes—from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one nation do business with corrupt companies in another nation. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another. Propagandist share resources and themes the world over using the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evils of America. The members of this autocratic network aren’t linked by a unifying ideology, such as communism, but by a common desire for power, wealth, and exemption from the rule of law.

John Grisham and Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries offer a look inside the many injustices of our criminal justice system in their book Framed. The most fundamental principle of our legal system is the presumption of innocence, but once someone is found guilty, there is little to no room to prove doubt. The ten stories found in this book shed light on Americans who were innocent but found guilty and forced to sacrifice friends, family members, and decades of their lives in prison while the actual guilty parties went free. Here, their dramatic and challenging struggles for exoneration illustrate that the road to a wrongful conviction are fraught with racism, misconduct, flawed testimony, and corruption in the court system that make reversal of conviction so hard. This meticulously researched book is the story of winning freedom when the battle already seems lost and the deck is stacked against you.

The Barn by Wright Thompson relates an account of the murder of Emmett Till that illustrates how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the lead-up to the crime and how the truth was suppressed for so long. Though Thompson lived just 23 miles from where the murder of Till occurred, he didn’t learn anything about it until he left the state for college. In August 1955, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam were charged with the torture and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. After their inevitable acquittal, they gave a false confession to a journalist which offered misleading information about where the events took place and who was involved. Thompson reveals that at least eight people can be placed at the scene inside the barn of one of the killers. Even for the racist caste system of the time, the four-hour torture and murder of a black boy barely in his teens was especially depraved. Till’s mother, Mamie, chose to keep the casket open so that everyone could know the suffering her child endured at the hands of these murderers. Yet, Thompson also brings to life the story of a mall group of dedicated people who have been engaged in the difficult and dangerous mission of bringing the truth to light.

The Devil at His Elbow by Valerie Bauerlein is the story of Alex Murdaugh—the president of the South Carolina trial lawyers’ association, a political boss, a part-time prosecutor, and a partner in his family’s law firm. By all accounts, Murdaugh was always ready with a favor, a drink, and an invitation to Moselle, his family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate. The Murdaugh name commanded respect and fear for miles around, but when Alex murdered his wife and son one dark summer night, the fragile façade he built crumbled away. His forefathers had covered up a midnight suicide at a remote railroad crossing, a bootlegging ring run from a courthouse, and the attempted murder of a pregnant lover. Alex, too, almost go away with his reputation intact, but his fall from grace was secured by a twist of fate, some errant mistakes, and a fateful decision by an old friend who had finally seen enough.

Simon Read delivers a riveting true-crime history of London’s first modern police force in his book Scotland Yard. From its establishment in 1829 through the eve of World War II, Scotland Yard—modern, professional, and centrally organized—set new standards for policing and investigating crime. Their advanced, ground-breaking use of forensics included advancements like fingerprints, ballistics, evidence collection, and even attempts at criminal profiling. All of this captivated the public on both sides of the Atlantic with feats of detective work that rivaled even fictional interpretations.

In The Bible, author Bruce Gordon tells the amazing story of the Bible’s journey around the globe and across more than two thousand years. For Christians, the Bible is the inspired word of God. Following Jesus’s departing instruction to go out into the world, the Bible has been a book in motion from the very beginning and every community it has touched has read, heard, and seen the Bible through its own language and culture. The Bible has shaped and been shaped by changing beliefs and believers’ different needs. It has been a tool for violence and oppression, and it has expressed hopes for liberation. God speaks with one voice, but the people who receive his word are scattered and divided; from desert monasteries and Chinese house churches, in Byzantine cathedrals and Guatemalan villages. The story of this sacred book is told through the experiences of its many and diverse human encounters illustrating its living, dynamic cultural force.